Six Smart Women Discussing Doctor Who

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Welcome to our new blog category: we all have so many projects on the go that may or may not intersect with our Verity lives (cough, hockey podcasts, cough, award-winning magazines). This is a way to keep our listeners up to date with what ELSE is going on in our worlds.

As I (Tansy) mentioned on our last episode, I’ve spent this month feeding and caring for a Kickstarter project: Mother of Invention.

Edited by Tansy Rayner Roberts & Rivqa Rafael, and published by Twelfth Planet Press, Mother of Invention will be a speculative fiction anthology of diverse, challenging stories about gender and artificial intelligence. We’re raising $20,000 to pay our authors and other upfront costs of this book, which will be published by Twelfth Planet Press alongside such previous fantastic publications as Kaleidoscope and Defying Doomsday. Our authors include such names as Kameron Hurley, Seanan McGuire, John Chu, Nisi Shawl, Cat Sparks, E.C. Myers and Ambelin Kwaymullina.

Our premise is that most stories about building/creating artificial intelligence tend to portray the creators as men, and while the robots & living computers (objects) as female. (Too many Professor Kettlewells, not enough Madame Lamias) We wanted to turn the tables a little, and see what interesting science fiction stories we could gather about women in the role of genius, creator & robotics engineer.

The REALLY exciting part is that with 8 days to go, we are at 91% already — so close to our funding target! We just announced stretch goals today, which includes an essays project, Twelfth Planet Press pins… and me personally podcasting the entire novel of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley with gender-switched pronouns.

If smart science fiction short stories are your sort of thing — our book may be exactly what you’re looking for! If you’ve never heard of the award-winning Australian micro-press Twelfth Planet Press before, there’s a fantastic deal at our $18 (Australian dollars) pledge level to get their two most recent anthologies as well as this new one. There are also reward levels involving tea and jam, because robots are delicious.

It’s a classic-Who first! Join Deb, Erika, and Katrina as they talk about the first Doctor Who story written by a woman, Barbara Clegg’s “Enlightenment”. Not for the first time, Erika and Kat go against received fan wisdom and are lukewarm at best toward this story. Good thing Deb is here to balance things out.

What do you think of “Enlightenment”? Are you drawn in by its fascinating concepts? Or left cold by a lack of connection to what’s happening on screen? Let us know in the comments!

Though this is less like 2 cents and more like 2000 cents, seen as that’s more or less the length of the posts I’ve been writing about each episode this season so far. Anyway, yes, my post about Under the Lake!

Gallifrey One is almost upon us! Deb, Erika, Kat and Liz will be there interviewing, panelling and catching up with friends old and new (also known as “LobbyCon”). As always, we’d love for you to say hello and let us know what you think of the show. (<—unintentional rhyme!) and maybe grab a ribbon or one of our awesome Verity! wristbands.

Congratulations to Bob Phillips, winner of the $25 Amazon gift card! Thanks to everyone who commented and to all of our Patreon contributors for their support. Stay tuned for more give-aways in 2015!

While it is not “officially” our 100th episode, Episode 61 marks the 100th time we’ve brought you a bit of Verity! goodness. We thought that was as good a reason as any to thank our amazing listeners and, in particular, all of the fabulous people who have contributed to our Patreon campaign.

So, to celebrate, we’re giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate!* You can put this toward the purchase of the soon-to-be released Series 8 Box Set or maybe pick up that classic DVD that you need to round out (or begin!) your Doctor Who collection. Whatever you decide, make it fabulous.

To enter, leave a comment below and we’ll announce the winner HERE and on Twitter next Wednesday, November 26. If you’ve contributed to our Patreon campaign, you don’t have to do a thing – you’re already entered to win!

Thank you for all of your support, comments, Tweets and general good will during the past 100 recordings. We can’t wait for the next 100!

^D

*If the winner lives in a country without access to Amazon, we will offer a comparable prize.

Thank you all for entering our first Big Finish contest! We’re thrilled so many of you listened to the episode, tweeted, commented and were generally enthusiastic about one of our favorite Doctor Who things. Yes, Big Finish is definitely one of our nuggets of Doctor Who delight. 😉

Congratulations to you all! To our winners – please leave a comment to this post and we’ll send you an email with further instructions on how to claim your download. And for all those who didn’t win, please check out Big Finish’s Anniversary Sale for great deals on Doctor Who audios. But be prepared, you won’t be able to stop at just one!

As we mentioned in our last episode (That would Episode 41 – The Legend of Sontar: A Linx to the Past in case you were wondering) we issued two challenges to you, dear listeners.

First, we are once again going to attempt a commentary episode. As you heard, we tried this once before and it was Beautiful! Pithy! Incredibly Witty and Intelligent! Sadly, it was also completely unlistenable.

Hey, it happens.

But we are nothing if not intrepid so once more unto the breach! This time we are turning the reins over to you. We each selected a story that fit within certain parameters (mostly time and accessibility) but we’re letting YOU pick which stories make the cut. We’ll take the two stories with the most votes and do two commentaries, one in the summer and one in the fall, so everyone gets a chance to participate. Without further ado, here is the shortlist:

The Gunfighters
The Visitation
Black Orchid
Paradise Towers
Father’s Day
The Curse of the Black Spot

So, pick your fave (IGNORE ALL INTERNET CAMPAIGNING FROM UNSCRUPULOUS VERITIES) and either leave a comment in the episode comments, in the comments of this post or on Twitter using the hashtag #VerityVotes.

We’re also planning a special “Ask Verity!” episode. This is your chance to ask us, individually or collectively, any (vaguely) Doctor Who/Fannish/Non-Creepy question you’d like! Pitch us your question and we will do our best to answer as many, as truthfully (or at least as entertainingly) as we can. Once again, you can leave a question in the episode comments, in the comments of this post or on Twitter using hashtag #AskVerity.